FCM urges increase in rural broadband access at CRTC hearings

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities said Canadians should be willing to see a slight increase in their Internet costs if it ensures broad, stable and fast Internet connectivity across the country.

“I think an incremental increase that allows better access not to just the people who live in rural Canada, but access for the rest of Canada, who moves around the country,” said FCM President Raymond Louie, during a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) public hearing on Friday in Gatineau, Quebec.

The regulator is conducting a three-week hearing into “basic telecom services” in Canada.

According to a 2014 CRTC annual communications report, most Canadians living in urban areas had access to broadband at a download speed of 50 to 99 Mbps, while only 25 per cent of those in rural had access to similar connectivity speeds.

Louie told iPolitics that the Federation is pleased “the government recognized that investment was necessary beyond what had been previously committed.”

This allocation of money “is a good starting point” but Orb said he is waiting to see how the money will be rolled-out, adding more funding may be required in the future because there are swaths of the country that currently have no broadband coverage.

The lack of rural broadband means that companies who want to locate to smaller communities often don’t have the have access to the tools they need to be competitive both regionally and internationally.

Louie said that the lack of fast Internet service has prevented rural regions from retaining their youth population and future workforce. Between 2007 and 2012, 20 per cent of young Canadians left their rural communities.

The FCM did a survey of their northern and rural delegates at their 2015 annual conference and found that 50 per cent of respondents “identified the ability to attract and retain young talent as the primary benefit of improved broadband access.”

“It’s nearly impossible to attract youth and others who have experienced higher levels of bandwidth in urban areas…to rural centres,” he said.

As the breadth and pace of technology in the world continues, he said “We need to move more quickly on this to provide services that are necessary.”